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An improved line-of-sight method for visibility analysis in 3D complex landscapes

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Abstract

This paper presents an efficient method for implementing visibility analysis on complex landscapes based on an improved LOS (line of sight) algorithm. The method determines the viewshed by analyzing the geometric relationship between the target points and viewpoint. It differentiates the visibility of the target points by the elevation information. Eventually the visual results related to the given viewpoint are rendered on three-dimensional landscapes. The visibility of some target points is computed by comparing their elevations with the viewpoint’s height, thus is able to enhance the efficiency of the visibility analysis. This method can not only be applied in the visibility analysis of forest scenes, but also used in the analysis of the urban environment. Experiments show that the proposed method results in high efficiency and precision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100875, China

    Liu Liu, LiQiang Zhang, XingMing Zhang, ZhiQiang Xiao & Ling Yang

  2. PTV America, Inc., 1145 Broadway Plaza Ste 605, Tacoma, WA, 98407, USA

    JingTao Ma

  3. School of Geomatics and Urban Information, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 100044, China

    Liang Zhang

Authors
  1. Liu Liu
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  2. LiQiang Zhang
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  3. JingTao Ma
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  4. Liang Zhang
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  5. XingMing Zhang
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  6. ZhiQiang Xiao
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  7. Ling Yang
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Correspondence to LiQiang Zhang.

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Liu, L., Zhang, L., Ma, J. et al. An improved line-of-sight method for visibility analysis in 3D complex landscapes. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 53, 2185–2194 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-010-4090-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-010-4090-x

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